More Allegations Surface in Tynes’ Grievance Against the Bucs

Kicker Lawrence Tynes, who remains on a PICC line after contracting MRSA more than two months ago, has filed his grievance against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, alleging that the team did not follow proper protocol by placing him on the Non-Football Injury list.

Among the previously unreported allegations — head coach Greg Schiano may have played a role in the decision to place Tynes on the NFI list, which denies him 401K and annuity benefits, and that three other Buccaneers contracted staph infections around the time of Tynes’ diagnosis.

The grievance states that Tynes who was not cultured by the team, that a two-week delay between his diagnosis and treatment likely worsened his condition, and that the team placed him on NFI because his culture showed a different strain of the potentially life-threatening infection than Carl Nicks’ strain.

The NFLPA points to Nicks, a Pro Bowl guard, who underwent the proper treatment immediately after his diagnosis which came at approximately August 19, when the team returned from playing the Patriots in Week 2 of the preseason. Nicks has since returned to action.

Tynes is expected to be on his PICC line, a peripherally inserted central catheter which delivers powerful antibiotics through the heart to rid the body of infection, for another two weeks.

He has already undergone two procedures to scrape out the infection, and it is unknown if he will be able to resume football activity at all, once healed. He claims that Schiano made no attempts to reach out to him while he was fighting the infection, while GM Mark Dominik did at least once.

The three other Bucs players who were diagnosed with staph infections were not named in the report, which states that a member of the Bucs training staff was fighting a MRSA infection himself at the start of training camp.

When asked about the matter, the Bucs declined comment to both La Canfora and Sports Talk Florida.

More Allegations Surface in Tynes' Grievance Against the Bucs
by Jenna Laine